Boonika

11/10/2013 - 25/10/2013, Zagreb, Croatia

Photo's by Dario Belić

The nude theme has persisted for thousands of years in the visual arts.

Throughout all the stylistic, historical and social changes, the artist's focus has always gone back to the nude - and most often female - body. His point of view, filtered by his convictions and experience, is then materialized into a work which can be achieved using a variety of art media. The fact that traditional art themes endure the test of time is both obvious and logical, even though they are perpetually rethought, reexamined, reinvented.

Ronald Aleksander Lindgreen, a painter, drawer and video artist, counts amongst contemporary artists who are still devoted to this classic painting theme. His compositions actualize the fascination created by the expressiveness of a woman's body and face; they reach inside the subject and give an impetus to think about how the painting was designed. Indicating space in his paintings using colors, while the volume is shown through elongated bodies with arabesque-like outlines, Lindgreen belongs to the tradition of modern European painting, where he develops his own stylistic specificities and a distinctive poetry. That poetry is characterized by the subtlety with which the musicality of the lines is smoothly deployed, by the sensitivity to color coordination and by the occasional encroachment on the body's proportions within the flat surface of the painting.

The starting point of the composition is the body: its shapes, suspended or agitated with movement, are stricken with an emotion and possessed by a state of mind. However, Ronald is not satisfied with the first and expected image of a realistic painting. Within the painted area, the starting line and surface are transformed into a new dimension of spatial and symbolic relationships and values. The body is the starting point and final destination of the painter's interest, but his previous experiences, whether they be life, artistic or theoretical experiences, drive him to give a personal context to the forms - of a female nude or a portrait.

Ronald Aleksander Lindgreen is immersed in the intimacy, the proximity with what is shown, and does not burden himself with the need for modern pessimism, excessive narrative or false engagement. Auguste Rodin's thought is confirmed once again: "Man's naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal, and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages."-- Barbara Vujanović